California Highway Patrol officers take cover behind a cruiser door with weapons drawn as they watch a suspect vehicle with its trunk open in Los Angeles on Tuesday. An assault suspect lead police on a slow-speed chase that ended in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. The suspect shot himself in the head in the car.

LOS ANGELES (AP)  An assault suspect who ran a luxury-car-rental business and was distraught over financial troubles led police on a more than three-hour chase in a Bentley sedan before fatally shooting himself in the head early Tuesday as officers surrounded the $100,000-plus vehicle.

The man died after he was taken to a hospital in Burbank, police Sgt. Ernest Fisher said. The Los Angeles County coroner's office identified him as Mustafa Mustafa, 27, of Chicago.

The low-speed pursuit covered several Southern California freeways Monday night before the man came to a stop on a street near Universal Studios very close to where the chase began.

About 90 minutes later, television news video showed three large armored vehicles surrounding the car and elite police approaching it with guns drawn. They broke the white sedan's passenger window and opened the door, but the man had already shot himself.

Police said the man was suspected of assault with a deadly weapon on his girlfriend. They also suspected from the start of the chase that he was armed.

Mustafa had run a business in Chicago and Las Vegas that rented fancy cars, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing public records. At one point, he was listed as president and chief executive of Chicago Exotic Car Rentals Inc. The company's website advertised a Cadillac Escalade ESV for $250 a day and a Rolls-Royce Phantom for $1,995 a day.

The company could not immediately be contacted Tuesday because its number was listed as temporarily disabled.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.